The Klee Inspired Quilt

I forgot to take a picture before I packed it up for Ann, but John and Paul held it up for me to take a quick picture of it. Ann is recovering from surgery and couldn't lift her arms and Paul and John were none to patient about it.
Ann was trying to decide which bed to put it on and Paul's comment was, 'That will certainly change the bedroom...'  An improvement on John's usual comment, 'That will keep you awake at night...' Conversation ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous and a very pleasant evening was had by all of us. 

We took our time with the Sunday paper and coffee but finally got around to trying to decide where to go for a walk, ultimately deciding to drive up to the Hood Mountain  Regional Park at the top of Los Alamos and just about directly above our house. The sign at the bottom of the road says it's four miles to the park, but it is a very long and arduous four miles. It was always a bit scary...narrow and twisting, turning into a single track at the top, before diving down into the park. The road has been repaved since the fire, but is more exposed than ever because so many trees have burned, revealing steep drop-offs on one side and loose rock on the other. Every time we drive this road we wonder why anyone would want to live up this road, but of course the answer is right before us...the views are spectacular. I wouldn't want to drive it on a dark and rainy night after an evening on the town....

The last time we walked the two miles or so down to Santa Rosa Creek it was extremely hot and dry. The park road had only been open for a short time and there was still a lot of clearing needing done. Today it was frosty and water was still seeping out of the hillside turning parts of the trail into a bog. The trail goes very steeply down, a good challenge for the quadriceps, and was carpeted with fallen acorns under the trees and new green grass in the open. It has now been cleared all the way  and although there are still a lot of dead trees, the ubiquitous Himalayan blackberry has made a comeback and clumps of bay laurel and other shrubby plants are reappearing.

The creek has clearly gone down a little but is still running high. I took the second extra from a spot where two branches of Santa Rosa Creek converge before rushing down the mountain across the street from our house and on through the town.  Although we didn't see another soul and let Spike off the lead, we put him back on it before he entertained any notion of stepping into the torrent. We watched for awhile, but didn't linger for long for we had a long slog back up the hill to the car.